Press Release
For Immediate Release
25 September 2006
ACTE's Toronto PowerTalk And Amex Study Draw Record-Breaking Crowd
Toronto -- Business travel management professionals turned out in a record-breaking crowd -- 130 -- to attend the Association of Corporate Travel Executives’ PowerTalk in Toronto, Canada , on 14 September 2006. The meeting served as the backdrop for American Express’s Overview of Canadian Business Expense and Travel Management Trends. According to Onita Dey-Frankian, ACTE Canada Regional Chair, this was the best-attended event of this kind in the association’s history.
“PowerTalks provide an intimate atmosphere to thoroughly examine a topic,” said Dey-Frankian. “Attendance at the Toronto event reaffirmed the timeliness of the topic and the emphasis ACTE members put on being ahead of the learning curve.” The American Express study served to confirm ACTE’s prognostication of at least one trend, and revealed potential professional growth in another, she added.
The Amex study indicated that Canadian T&E; spending has nearly doubled -- to $24 billion annually -- over the last nine years, based on a survey of 500 companies originally conducted by IPSOS Reid in 1997. Yet despite this increase in business travel expenses only 53 percent of companies have assigned someone with the overall responsibility to manage it. This would indicate that 47 percent of Canadian companies are ready for business travel managers.
Another interesting statistic announced in the study is that the usage of online booking tools by companies with more modest travel spends has risen to 35 percent. Nevertheless, more than a third of the companies covered by the survey -- 37 percent -- have indicated they have no plans to use an online booking tool in the immediate future.
Several other interesting trends involved procurement and a greater reliance on automated expense management. In Canada, procurement has emerged as often having the role of negotiating travel discounts, but is rarely responsible for managing overall travel expenditures. The number of companies with automated expense management systems has increased significantly from 27 percent in 1997 to 46 percent today, even though the majority of these firms pay for non-related travel services by cheque.
Other data that pinpointed an immediate area of concern for Canadian business travel managers was that a greater number of companies are reimbursing their traveling employees electronically, but two thirds of their companies do not know how much it costs to administer an employee’s expense reimbursements.
The study was presented again in Vancouver on 20 September 2006 and the same topic will be the focus of a third PowerTalk in Ottawa, on 12 October, 2006.
“ACTE’s international education program is on the fast track,” said the association’s Executive Director Susan Gurley. ‘We think of it as the industry’s fall semester. Each of these PowerTalks, and our executive forums, all lead to the Global Conference in Barcelona (22-24 October 2006), where a variety of subjects will be discussed in greater detail. And following the Global Conference will be the ACTE Canada Education Conference in Montreal (19-21 November 2006). This is another industry first and underscores Canada’s contribution to the international business travel industry.”
For more information, contact:
Monica Hailstone
Regional Director, Canada
Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE)
T: 613-838-3879
E: [email protected]
For more information, contact:
Debbie Flynn
CEO
Brighter Group
The Pod, London's Vertical Gateway
Bridges Wharf, Battersea
London SW11 3BE England
T: 020 7326 9880
F: 020 7326 9890
E: [email protected]
W: www.brightergroup.com